1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a system for determining the place of origin of passive intermodulation products in devices under test.
2. Discussion of the Background
If passive component groups, for example, plug connectors, cables and antennas, are supplied by two high-frequency signals, passive intermodulation products occur at places with a non-linear transmission characteristic because of the effect of the nonlinear distortion. Such places with a nonlinear transmission characteristic are, for example, contaminated or oxidized points within the conductive material, magnetic materials in the conduction pathway, transitions between various metals, geometric inhomogeneities in the conduction path, for example, metallic chips at metal edges.
If these passive intermodulation products occur in the frequency range of the transmission system, they lead to undesired interference in the receiver, which can render a correct decoding or detection of the transmitted payload data difficult or impossible.
A measuring method is known from US 2010/0164504 A1, in which one of the two excitation signals is swept. However this has not proved successful in practice.